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“Creating a culture of vocation in today’s Irish Church-is it too late?”

The following is a talk which I was invited to give to the Annual General Meeting of St. Joseph's Young Priest's Society in Foxrock on the 13th of June 2016.

Good evening, it’s good to be here with you this
evening. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sr. M. Louise O’
Rourke, and I’m a Disciple of the Divine Master, up at Newtownpark Avenue. Thanks
to Dominic Dowling for inviting me to speak to you too.
When I asked Dominic, what do you want me to speak about…he more or less told
me that I could choose! Sometimes it is easier to be given a topic to talk
about. Anyways, after some prayer and reflection I came up with the title:
“Creating a culture of vocation in today’s Irish Church- is it too late? ”.

Everyone is called to discern what God wants them
to do with their lives — be it a young man considering the priesthood, men and
women entering the religious life, a man feeling called to the permanent diaconate,
a couple deciding on marriage, or someone recognizing a dedicated single life.
Today, however, there are many challenges to hearing God’s call, and the task
of the Church is to assist men and women to discern the path that will lead
them to true happiness and eternal life.

We often associate the term “vocation” solely with priesthood or those
discerning a call to the priesthood. But it is more than that. The word vocation comes from the
Latin word vocare, which is a verb that means ‘to call’. In simplest
terms, a vocation could also be called a ‘calling.’In our Catholic worldview, we believe that
God has a plan for each of us. In a way, in a broad way, the whole sense of
discipleship, the whole sense of divine Providence, the whole sense that God
has a plan for us, stems from what you might call this generic sense of
vocation. What we often overlook is that we all have a vocation. Two
actually! Primarily, we are all called to a life of holiness. That is we should
all be striving to be saints one day. In addition, we all have a particular
vocation. It is through our particular vocation that we discern the
state of life God is calling us to.

We tend to hear all the time about a “crisis in
vocations.” This is usually discussed concerning vocations to the priesthood.
But the challenge of discerning a vocation is not limited to the priesthood. The
crisis is that the vocations to the priesthood and religious life are not being
nurtured and encouraged as well as they could be. Nor is the vocation to
marriage. The crisis is not just one of numbers; it is a crisis of
culture.There are many who are being
called, yet for a young person today it can be very daunting to acknowledge
such a thing and pursue it.

That said, I don’t believe there is a vocation crisis. I believe
that what we have is a Vocation Awareness Crisis. I know that God
continues to call men and women into service, but I think we have created an
environment in our Catholic culture where people no longer have the ears to
hear that call; or the willingness to follow it. Outside of our church, our
secular culture values materialism, wealth, status, position, celebrity and
power, far, far above a call to poverty, chastity, obedience and service and so
the natural outcome is fewer deacons, priests and religious, fewer married
couples and families open to promoting vocations.

In vocation circles, we often talk about creating a culture of vocations. This
is not a new concept. We know it used to exist. Fifty years ago, there
was no greater honour to a family than if one of its members became a priest or
a religious, but those times have changed. But they can change again.

Maybe for a while, we had a culture that
discouraged vocations, even in religious circles. I myself was told in Leaving Cert year by my
Catholic guidance teacher that ‘I was mad’ for considering a vocation! We all
pray for an increase in vocations. But would you dare to pray for a vocation in
your family? Your own son or daughter, grandchild, niece or nephew? When Bishop
Kevin Doran was consecrated bishop of Elphin in 2014, he posed the question- do
we really pray for vocations? Or is it, vocations, yes, but not from my family!
The founder of Opus Dei, Jose Maria Escriva once remarked that those
called by God owe ninety percent of their vocation to their parents. So we can
say that the family is the seedbed of vocations. Saint Pope John Paul II tells
us that us the future passes through the family. Whether it is a fertile or
clogged seedbed is another issue. It is not the only seedbed though. There are three
particularly strong influences on young people today. One, the general culture
and peer network; two, the educational system; three, the family environment.
Hopefully, at least two out of three would be positive influences to create a
favourable environment for young men and women to commit themselves totally to
God but this is not always the case.

I always think that we miss the boat when we don’t speak too about marriage as
a vocation. I mean, that is the biggest vocations crisis in the Church today,
if you ask me. When only half of our Catholic people are getting married, it’s
to be expected that we have a crisis in the numbers of vocations to the
priesthood and the religious life. It’s a fear of commitment
which is present across the board of all walks of life.

What is a culture of vocations?What I understand by a culture of vocations is whereby our young
people and at times not so young grow up in a culture that encourages you to do
God’s will and that affirms the individual in that desire to be a priest, a
religious, married etc. Such a
culture encourages, fosters, promotes, affirms and celebrates young people as
they discern their particular vocation to serve Jesus Christ and his
Church. Then, we will have people who have made mature and
committed decisions to take seriously on board their vocation.

But what does it meant to
create a culture of vocation? The word culture has many different
meanings. For some it refers to an appreciation of good literature,
music, art, and food. However, for anthropologists and other behavioural
scientists, culture is the full range of learned human behaviour patterns. Culture
is what forms us from our earliest days. Culture is a powerful human
tool for survival, but it is a fragile phenomenon, it is constantly changing
and easily lost. Just as this applies to any other kind of
culture, so it applies to a culture of vocations.

Whose responsibility is it
to create this culture of vocations? Pope Benedict XVI said: ‘Particularly in these times, when the voice
of the Lord seems to be drowned out by ‘other voices’ and his invitation to
follow him by the gift of one’s own life may seem too difficult, every
Christian community, every member of the Church, needs to consciously feel
responsible for promoting vocations.” So there’s our answer. It is the
responsibility of everyone. It’s not a responsibility we can take lightly
though it’s a responsibility we might not want to take upon ourselves. It means
being moved out of our comfort zones to invite and encourage those in whom we
see a potential vocation to consider the religious life or priesthood. Yet we
need to do it because there are so many other aspects of our popular culture
that promote values and ideals that dissuade anyone who might consider getting
actively involved in the Church, much less give their life to service of the
Church.

Answering Jesus’ call of “Follow me!” is “no less challenging” today than it
was for the disciples 2,000 years ago. Pope Francis is his message for the
World Day of Prayer for Vocations urged the faithful to take every opportunity
to develop vocations. “Every moment” in
Church community life from catechesis to prayer and pilgrimages can be “a
precious opportunity for awakening in the people of God … a sense of belonging
to the Church and of responsibility for answering the call to priesthood and to
religious life by a free and informed decision,” he says.

“The ability to foster vocations,”
Pope Benedict wrote, “is a hallmark of
the vitality of a local Church.” Yes, the springtime of the Church is
happening in the universal Church. We see it in Africa; Asia; parts of Central
America and Eastern Europe. We see it in some of the ecclesial movements.But what about Ireland? It may be too early
to say that it is springtime in Ireland but as Church, we live knowing that
spring is coming.

I would like to share with you some of the seeds of
hope which I see as influential in the flourishing of a culture of vocations in
recent times in the Irish Church.

One which is fresh in my mind is the Rise
of the Roses, which our congregation was blessed to be involved in. A group
of young women spent 10 Saturdays touring Ireland visiting 10 different
convents with a bus load of friends and families. Aside from the 10 Saturdays,
they were instrumental in sowing the seeds of the call to religious life in the
hearts and minds of many young people during the Year for Consecrated Life.
Their mission was to rediscover the beauty of a life consecrated to God by
meeting religious women and having young people hear their story. The fruits of
this are showing in small cells of young women who are coming together to
discern and share common life .Youth 2000 – Last year, over 1300
young people between 16 and 35 attended a 4 day festival of faith, based on the
format of the 40 hours of Adoration. They sang, danced, prayed the Rosary, did
Adoration, went to Confession, attended workshops on a number of topics,
including vocations. It is an incredible witness to the hunger of our youth to
know and celebrate their faith. There are now over 30 weekly Youth 2000 Prayer
groups who meet and have Eucharistic Adoration and offer peer support in living
faith.Pure in Heart- a movement which
promotes the beauty of chastity and healthy relationships.Living Water- a charismatic prayer
group here in Dublin for 20-40 year olds. It is committed to evangelisation and
cultivating a living relationship with Jesus who sends us out to bring the
Gospel. In Lent, a Life in the Spirit seminar was held for 10 weeks and over
130 young people participated.Sisters Café- an initiative of
Vocations Ireland whereby sisters go to different venues and parishes to speak
about vocations in an informal setting
There have been a flourishing of male
religious life in Ireland, especially the mendicant orders-over the past
few weeks in and the coming weeks there are ordinations to deaconate and
priesthood in different religious orders. Also numbers in the enclosed and
contemplative orders are on the rise. There is a trickle of applications also
to apostolic and missionary orders too, both people applying here in Ireland
and Irish people joining new orders and associations in different countries. This
is the fruit of prayer of individuals and communities and also of committed
vocation directors.
There are more applications for the Order
of Consecrated Virginity (Ordo Virginum) which is a very specific form of
consecration.

So what can I, what can we do? A recent study by the U.S.
bishops showed that something as simple as having even one person encourage an
individual to consider a vocation doubles the likelihood that they will do so,
for both men and women. If three people offered encouragement, respondents were
more than five times more likely to consider a religious vocation. We need to
encourage our youth to consider this way of life just as they consider the
myriad other ways of life presented to them every day. We must promote
this same culture in the digital world too. Somewhere in the region of 90% of
inquiries for priestly and religious vocations now come from social media: from
websites, via Twitter and Facebook, and for the really old-fashioned, via
email! People can now explore a vocation online in a way that is much less
risky, they can make the initial steps of discernment online without having to
speak to anyone in person. As St. Joseph’s
Young Priests Society, your focus is essentially on priesthood. As I was
preparing this talk, I was reminded of an initiative which I saw done in my
home parish and which has been repeated in different countries too. It is
called the ‘Chalice Programme’. The Chalice Programme directly
involves the parishioners. At the end of a Sunday Mass, a family, couple or
individual receives the Chalice from the priest and they
take the Chalice home, place it in a prominent location and pray daily for
vocations. It may be the first time this topic has been explored, and may be a
very important week for the family. This might be an opportunity to invite
family and friends to join in sharing and prayer. In one year, 52 families will have actively
prayed and hopefully dialogued about vocations. In ten years, that number reaches 520. Multiply
that by the 199 parishes in Dublin…well you need a calculator!

The question I started off was whether it is
too late for the Irish Church to create a culture of vocations. I would answer
‘no’. Not because of any of our human efforts but because the call comes from
God and He keeps calling. The good news is that much work has been done to
begin to create a culture of vocations to point to the transcendent and
profound good that comes to the individual and the world when an individual
embraces his/her vocation.We have to
focus on the small mustard seeds which we see flourishing and be prepared to
keep dreaming, hoping and praying.

Some parishes, dioceses, religious orders, and colleges are developing vocation
programs or youth programs to encourage young people in their faith, helping
them to realize that a relationship with Christ is a beautiful and powerful
thing that is worth developing despite what the popular culture may say. In
Ireland, the national organization for vocations, Vocations Ireland, recently
received a generous donation from the Hilton Foundation which offers huge
possibility to get the message out about vocations and also to provide
resources and opportunities for young and not so young people to explore the
Lord’s call.

Conclusion-Each way of life is full of
challenges – as any married person can attest to. But, when it is
what you are called to, you cannot imagine doing anything else. We have to
encourage people to be open to the possibility. To open their hearts
to listen to Jesus. The simple thing that we are all called to do is encourage
young people to be open to whatever God has planned for them – whether
religious, married, single, or priest. When we make
Jesus, manifested in our world, manifested in the Eucharist, Reconciliation and
all the sacraments, the centre of our life, we look at life
differently. You see, it is a domino effect. When we are
open to the presence of Jesus, we become the presence of Jesus in the
world.

Prayer is always the first step.
Pray for more young men to listen for God’s call to the priesthood for them.
Pray for the strength of marriages in our community. Pray for strength and
courage for our priests, deacons, and religious as they live their lives in
service to God. Pray for all young people to listen to God’s call for them and
then to follow through. Pray for your own children, that they will be open to
God’s will for their lives and they will say yes to whatever He is calling them
to.

As a bonus, take your prayer to Adoration if it is
available to you. Parishes with perpetual adoration often see a boost in young
men discerning the priesthood and people entering religious life. In our
parish, we have an Adoration Chapel. One day each month is set aside in a very
specific way to pray for vocations to the priesthood. Our Divine Master Centre
is available for youth seeking spaces of prayer and reflection to discover
God’s will for them. Spend one hour in
adoration, pray for an increase in priestly vocations, and one day we will see
God’s amazing work. Many bishops are testifying to the clear relationship
between Eucharistic devotion and an increase of vocations to the priesthood and
religious life.

Another way of supporting
vocations is to let those in formation know that you praying for them.
Going through the formation process can be a joyful time as well as a very
difficult time for young people. Almost every priest or religious I have spoken
with has questioned their vocational call at some point during their
discernment process. Knowing that people are praying for them offers them
support and encouragement.

Young people are looking for models of holiness
and commitment, and the community of the faithful, recognizing this desire, can
help lead these young seekers in the right direction.In addition to this, we can all help create
a culture which encourages and supports vocations in our homes and in our
parishes.There’s no better place for us
to start than with our prayers for vocations. So maybe we could conclude by
praying a prayer for vocations, composed for the World Day of Prayer for
Vocations.Thank you.

Sr. M. Louise O’ Rourke, pddm

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